Gathering machines such as saddle stitchers are known. In a saddle stitcher, a plurality of signatures delivered from sheet material feeders or hoppers are collected on a saddle-back conveyor. A stitcher stitches the collected signatures.
A saddle stitcher, for example, may collate signatures to assemble complete sets of signatures and bind them together using stitches. The signatures are opened to the center fold and collated by feeders onto a saddle chain to be conveyed past a stitching mechanism. These bound signatures, or books, are then removed from the saddle conveyor for further processing, such as trimming the unbound edges.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,835 purportedly discloses a collating machine that includes a stitcher assembly which stitches a group of signatures while they are moving. The stitching assembly does not require the use of rails for guiding any reciprocating mechanisms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,257 purportedly discloses a gathering-stitching machine having a guide element in the stitching region, wherein a run of folded sheets or signatures in the stitching region is improved, and downtime resulting from disruptions in the inlet and outlet of the stitching region is shortened.
U.S. Publication No. 2005/0285319 discloses a stitcher and a conveyor for moving unbound printed products past the stitcher for stitching. The conveyor includes a timing belt having a plurality of pushing elements for engaging and moving the unbound printed products past the stitcher.